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fafety, folicitous for our welfare, and always anxious for our prefervation

Let us then always imagine (what must be always true) that the Supreme Being is ever prefent with us; to him, therefore, let us apply in every exigency; afk his approbation and confent to every word and every action, before we venture to fpeak, or to act at all; when we rife up to labour, and when we lie down to reft, let us implore his aid, and folicit his protection.

Let us implore him to whom all hearts are open, all defires known, and from whom no fecrets are hidden, to cleanfe the thoughts of our hearts, by the infpiration of his Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love him, and worthily magnify his holy name, through Christ our Lord.

AGAINST HYPOCRISY.

SERMON XLVII.

LUKE XII. I.

Beware ye of the Leaven of the Pharifees, which is Hypocrify.

UR Bleffed Saviour, who came down from heaven to reform and inftruct mankind, and who never whilft on earth omitted any favourable opportunity of recommending

virtue,

virtue, and feverely rebuking vice, having, as the Apoftle informs us in the beginning of the verfe, affembled together a very large concourfe of people, who crowded from all parts to fee and hear him, begins his addrefs to them in the words of my text, Beware ye, fays he, of the leaven of the Pharifees, which is Hypocrify. The first vice against which he cautioned them, was, that to which they were probably most addicted, and which he had himfelf the greatest abhorrence of: and as he spake at this time with authority, and as the nature and extent of his divine miffion required, he makes no fcruple of openly attacking those who were moft remarkably guilty of it, and with great propriety ftyles it the leaven of the Pharifees. The Pharifees were, notwithstanding, a fet of men at this time held in great efteem and veneration by the multitude, whom they eafily deceived by a more than ordinary appearance of fan&tity and devotion; they fafted often, made long prayers, gave alms plentifully, tithed even mint and cummin; they dealt, in fhort, much like our modern methodists, in works of fupererogation, affected great aufterity, and boafted of more purity and integrity than the reft of mankind; but at the fame time were deficient in many of the important duties; they were pleased with the pomp and parade, the trappings and ornaments of religion, but neglected the weightier matters of the law, and were, in fhort, after all their pretences, no better in reality, than downright hypocrites and impoftors; men who

had

had (as is too often the cafe) more wit than honefty, more pride than merit, and more knowledge than virtue. By their specious behaviour they had, however, gained great influence and intereft, and were generally employed in thofe offices which required the greatest talents and abilities, and on this very account our Saviour rebuked them with the greater freedom, becaufe no doubt he thought them capable of doing more injury to his caufe than any other fet of men whatever: and accordingly we find that whenever he speaks of them, it is with a warmth of indignation and bitterness of reproach which he very feldom makes use of on any other occafion; he always cenfures them with that zeal which it became the God of truth to exprefs againft falfehood and deceit, and chaftifes them with that feverity which they no doubt highly deferved. And if we seriously reflect on what in the following difcourfe I propofe more fully to confider-the fatal and deftructive confequences of this vice, we fhall not wonder either at the warmth of his refentment, the frequency of his admonitions concerning it, or the heavy judgments which he fo often denounced against it.

Though, to every fober and thinking man to be thoroughly fatisfied that any action was forbidden by God, were doubtlefs fufficient to deter him from the commiffion of it; yet, to those who are notwithstanding so obftinate and fo abandoned as to continue in the practice of this vice, it may not be amifs to reprefent to them the fatal confequences of it, as it affects

the

the various relations in which we ftand towards God, our neighbour and ourselves, and to fhew how pernicious and deftructive they are in regard to every one of them.

And first then, Hypocrify is a breach of our duty towards God, as it is a moft daring and moft infolent contempt of him; it is no lefs indeed than to doubt his Godhead, and to dis. pute his omnifcience, and this every hypocrite is guilty of. The God of Ifracl, fays he, fhall not fee it, neither fhall the God of Jacob regard it; that is, he to whom all hearts are open fhall not know mine; that eye which pierceth into every thing elfe, fhall not be able to difcern my fecrets. Can any thing be more vile or impious, and at the fame time more ridiculous and abfurd?

One of the principal fources of incredulity in all ages, has been the hypocrify of those who have pretended to acknowledge the true faith. From hypocrify, religion has fuffered. from the beginning of time, and muft continue to fuffer even to the end of it. Our Savi. our himself was always contending with it; he met indeed with little elfe than hypocrify from those who were about him, whilft he lived, and died at last a facrifice to fraud and diffimulation. Even his difciples, who had left all and followed him, we are told, when he was in danger and tribulation, forfook him and filed; his followers were hypocrites, and deferted him: Peter was a hypocrite and denied. him; Judas was a hypocrite and betrayed him.

But let us, to bring the matter clofer to ourfelves, reflect a little on what I propofed,

fecondly,

fecondly, To confider the evil confequences of this vice, in regard to our relations and connections with one another.

Mutual trust and confidence is the great bond of Society, without which it cannot poffibly fubfift; it is this on which both public and private happiness muft more immediately depend; from fincerity, uprightness, and integrity must flow all the refined pleasures and sweetest endearments of life; this is the great corner ftone on which we must build all our hopes, and when it is once removed, they will stand on a very weak and tottering foundation. The fearch of truth is the great and important business of our lives, the end of all our words and actions; the hypocrite therefore acts in direct oppofition to God and nature, puts a ftop, as far as in him lies, to the intereft and happiness of his fellow-creatures, enters into an alliance with Satan, and counteracts the defigns of the Almighty.

There is nothing which is more difguftful to the open and ingenuous mind at its firft entrance into, and commerce with the world, than that hypocrify it meets with, and that diffimulation which it is forced, as it were, to practise in compliance with the modes and fashions of the age. Custom has indeed established and given a kind of fanction to it; but there is fomething in it, notwithstanding, which greatly shocks the natural delicacy of chafte and unblemished youth. By the force of example, and the influence of the multitude, it is brought indeed at laft, but too foon, to Hh

the

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